Son of pastor who died of snake bite nearly dies of snake bite

[Underseer]

http://friendlyatheist.patheos.com/...snake-bite-nearly-dies-from-snake-bite-again/

OK, get your Darwin Award jokes out of the way. We know you're going to do it.

Anyway, religion tells people that faith is a virtue. Faith is accepting conclusions without evidence (or on bad evidence). Additionally, Christians have something called a "test of faith" in which they are told it is virtuous to keep the same conclusion even when confronted with evidence that your conclusion is wrong.

This is necessary because this is the only way to get people to accept conclusions that are not supported by valid evidence. If you want people to believe in nonsense, it is necessary to convince them that it's a good idea to accept conclusions without good evidence, and to keep those conclusions even when presented with contrary evidence.

If they only used this bad epistemology to evaluate truth claims about religion, then there would be no problem.

The problem comes when they use this same epistemology on matters other than religion, such as whether or not it's a good idea to risk getting bitten by venomous snakes. This man's father died from snake handling. Any rational person in that situation would decide to stop doing the thing that killed his father, but religion is inherently good and religion is inherently worth more than your life because religion is good. Did I mention that religion will make you more moral? No, don't look at the evidence for my claim that religion makes you more moral. You have to accept it on faith.

So instead of abandoning the practice of snake handling because it killed his father, ol' junior here just kept doing it. Thank goodness he didn't die.

Once faith convinces someone that something is true, how can evidence convince them that it's not?

I'm glad to hear that he is "reevaluating his faith," but why did it take this long?

 

[Cheerful Charlie]

More snakes! More snakes! Cull the gene pool.

 

[phands]

Darwin award candidate...just like daddy. This part of the gene-pool is self-chlorinating.

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

There's not a lot of difference between bipolar and religious behavior. Sounds like bipolar runs in the family here.

 

[Keith&Co.]

Darwin award candidate...just like daddy

Um... hold on, just one second.

 

[Keith&Co.]

Thank goodness he didn't die....I'm glad to hear that he is "reevaluating his faith," but why did it take this long?

Thank Goodness?
You mean, 'thank God.' Because that was his entire treatment plan, hope God healed him. And as far as anyone can prove to him, God did exactly that. He got bit and survived. I would not be surprised if he continued to participate in these services.

He was not bit during a service, just maintaining the snakes. So it wasn't MEANT as a test of God's power or support, or Cody's faith. But his faith was repaid, anyway. No antivenin, no leeches, no sucking the poison out....
There's a good chance he will see this as a sign to BOLSTER his faith.

 

[abaddon]

He was not bit during a service, just maintaining the snakes.

No he was bit while preaching and was yelling "God's a healer!" in the minutes before he started choking.

I didn't see part 2, where they say how he was healed.

I agree he's not likely to rethink the Bible. That'd undermine the meaning of his whole life. So... "reevaluating his life". That likely means he's wondering what sin caused him to not hear God "talking to him" during the service, which led to him getting bitten. This is shamanism. He thinks if the magic is working then he's safe. If the magic isn't working, then he didn't do the magic ritual perfectly correctly.

If he rethinks the snake-handling at all, it'll only be if he listens to his wife better than he's done (and as he should). But, as he said in the video: "God comes first, family comes second".

 

[OLDMAN]

Jesus said pluck out your eyes and cut off your hand...but I'm the only one that listened to him.....then I told him to fuck off.

 

[abaddon]

Once faith convinces someone that something is true, how can evidence convince them that it's not?

Change his values. What counts for "evidence" depends a lot on values.

So to be convincing, you have to speak to the values questions and the narrative ("worldview") they're based on, and not just go on about the evidence in your narrative.

Dude would feel like a poor and dumb nobody in your world. In his world, he's a soul-saving magician with access to ecstatic states, and a warrior in a cosmic battle between Good and Evil in alliance with the King of the Universe.